Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) Price Target Raised to $151.00

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) had its price objective raised by TD Securities from $140.00 to $151.00 in a research report report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a hold rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $140.00 target price (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $140.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday. Finally, Argus raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $147.37.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $143.49 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $132.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $133.88. Yum! Brands has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $144.71.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.98%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 51.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Yum! Brands

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,038,775,000 after acquiring an additional 111,147 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $315,996,000 after purchasing an additional 94,026 shares during the period. Cantillon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 31.7% in the 4th quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $252,272,000 after purchasing an additional 452,339 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,677,290 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $225,025,000 after purchasing an additional 44,428 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 835,800 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $116,770,000 after acquiring an additional 2,800 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.